From The Couch – Bruce Weber Uses “Pete The Cat” To Motivate The Basketball Team
K-State basketball lost a couple of eight-point games to Arkansas and Illinois in the Hall of Fame Classic last week and followed that up with a victory against North Dakota on Sunday afternoon. Weber said he showed the team a cartoon called “Pete The Cat” prior to the game on Sunday for motivation….
“I showed a little video to them…my Grandson’s favorite little…”Pete The Cat”…you can watch it…”Pete The Cat” loves his white shoes..and, uh, things don’t always go right in life and you know when it happens bad you can’t sit there and cry, you’ve gotta come back with a swagger and that was the last thing I wrote on the board tonight was play with a swagger.”…Bruce Weber, November 28, 2021, after an 84-42 victory over North Dakota on Sunday
JM: Bruce Weber sure uses some strange motivation tactics. He’s a Power 5 head basketball coach and he showed his basketball team a video that a kindergarten teacher might show to their class. I can imagine there was a lot of snickering and giggles from the team as they were made to sit and watch the video. You can watch Bruce’s comments and the “Pete The Cat” video below…
“I thought it could have even been more if we make our dang layups. I don’t understand it. One thing we did both Friday and Saturday, we shot a bunch of layups and we got to find a way. We can’t give up those easy points if we’re gonna beat really good teams.”…Bruce Weber, November 28, 2021, after an 84-42 victory over North Dakota on Sunday
JM: I haven’t seen a basketball team miss so many layups since……last year’s K-State basketball team.
“I called him in yesterday and I just told him, you (Marquis Nowell) could become our leader if you really want to.” …Bruce Weber, November 28, 2021, after an 84-42 victory over North Dakota on Sunday
JM: Nowell, the transfer from Little Rock, has been a bright spot for the Wildcats so far. He is second on the team in scoring (12.8 PPG), and leads the team in assists and steals despite not starting a game…yet.
“We settled to 0-for-10 from three in that first half, settled with some empty possessions, and then took care
of the ball a little bit better in the second half.”…Bruce Weber, November 22, 2021, after a 72-64 loss to Arkansas
JM: Watching this team shoot, and miss, open three pointers can be quite maddening at times.
“I thought we battled but you didn’t come here just to battle.”…Bruce Weber, November 23, 2021, after a 72-64 loss to Illinois
JM: K-State looked much better against Illinois, but still lost by eight.
“We got to take a step. We got to get better in these next couple of games and then we’ll have after the next two home games, we’ll have some tough games coming up so that every game is stuff we got to make improvement.” …Bruce Weber, November 23, 2021, after a 72-64 loss to Illinois
JM: Albany, Wichita State, and Marquette are the next three games for the Wildcats.
“Missing layups. Those are little things. You know, making maybe an extra pass, making the right pass, executing the play. Those are things we’re gonna have to definitely make some progress with and again, I still think we have a chance to be good.” …Bruce Weber, November 23, 2021, after a 72-64 loss to Illinois
JM: It’s hard to be a good team when you’re missing layups all the time.
“The offense is really stagnant right now. We’re not executing at a very high level, but this is game four of the season so we’re not really too depressed or mad about how things are going but it’s gonna come. It’s gonna come around, game seven and eight. We’re gonna start flowing.”…Marquis Nowell, November 23, after a 72-64 loss to Illinois
JM: I’ll take his word for it.
K-State takes on Albany at 7:00 PM in Bramlage Coliseum on Wednesday night. The game will be broadcast on ESPN Plus.
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